Uh... this is bad, right?

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fifthofnovember

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Feb 28, 2010
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Long story short, I went to a fish auction and came home with 5 baby blue eyed ancistrus. One keeps doing this:

piggyback.jpg

That's about a 1/2" ancistrus on the back of my 3" chocolate albino pleco. Choco doesn't seem to know/mind, and baby doesn't appear to be feeding - just hanging out there.

What's up with this? Can the baby fish hurt my larger pleco by doing it?

piggyback.jpg
 

pinkertd

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May 29, 2007
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I don't know why the baby pleco would keep doing that, but it won't do any harm to your adult pleco.
 

fifthofnovember

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Good to know.

Pinkertd - you breed L144? Are they the same as other BNPs? Give 'em a tube and let 'em go? That's my eventual plan for these guys.
 

LiveMermaid07

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It thinks it's mommy! ;) Awww!
 

fifthofnovember

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Right? It actually is pretty cute.

Although with BNPs its dad that tends the eggs, and certainly not a fish of an entirely different species. :22_yikes:

But I will confess I took the picture BECAUSE it was cute and then went "Oh... wait. Poor Choco, with someone's little sucker mouth stuck to him!"
 

pinkertd

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Yes, I've been breeding them for a few years now. I find that they are a bit more fragile as young fry than common bristlenose plecos. They grow much, much slower and their spawns are a lot smaller and not as frequent. You don't have to worry about being overrun with L144 fry.
 

vanillarum

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I think I would try and dislodge the 1 pleco from the other. Plecos have a reputation of sucking the slime coat off of other fish, and that can't be good for the choco. They quite often do this with goldfish, but I would assume it could happen with any fish. I breed fire red ancistrus, and I have not seen this behavior - yet. Good luck.
 

fifthofnovember

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Feb 28, 2010
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Yes, I've been breeding them for a few years now. I find that they are a bit more fragile as young fry than common bristlenose plecos. They grow much, much slower and their spawns are a lot smaller and not as frequent. You don't have to worry about being overrun with L144 fry.
Also good to know. I know it'll be QUITE a while before these guys are big enough to sex/breed, so... yeah. But information never hurts.

Wondering, though, are blue eyed BNP the same as non-blue eyed BNP? Are they all L144 if they're bristlenose? Because I have an albino BNP (not blue eyed) got this summer and not related to these fish. If they're the same species it might be interesting to cross and back cross with that albino gene floating around in the blue eyed population.

I think I would try and dislodge the 1 pleco from the other. Plecos have a reputation of sucking the slime coat off of other fish, and that can't be good for the choco. They quite often do this with goldfish, but I would assume it could happen with any fish. I breed fire red ancistrus, and I have not seen this behavior - yet. Good luck.
I haven't had that problem either, until now. I've heard of ottos doing it, but never plecos. Not 100% sure that's even what this little one is doing but wouldn't hurt to err on the side of caution, I imagine.
 
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